In 1998, I began a systematic program of selecting and evaluating improved seedlings of swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor. Between 1998 and 2005, I walked the cultivated nursery production rows of two year old trees of Quercus bicolor in a nursery in Boring, Oreg. During this time, I walked dozens of rows and examined over 10,000 trees. From these, 66 trees with superior features were identified, selected, and transplanted for further study. These plants were all selected from trees that originated from seed of unknown, unpatented Quercus bicolor trees. Of these 66 trees, 18 were chosen as finalists, assigned identifying numbers, and planted out into an evaluation block. I began propagating these 18 selected trees by chip budding into small plots on Quercus bicolor rootstock.
This particular invention, ‘JFS-KW12’ was first identified in the late summer of 2002. My attention was first drawn to it by its vigorous growth habit, its large deep green glossy leaves, and its excellent branch structure. Further observation showed that it possessed much greater resistance to powdery mildew and oak anthracnose than typical seedlings of Quercus bicolor. In January of 2003, I transplanted this original ‘JFS-KW12’ tree to a special evaluation row. In August of 2004, I began propagation of this new tree by chip budding to compare it to seedlings and to other promising selections of the species that I had identified. The transplanted row, and the propagation by chip budding, were both in a nursery in Boring, Oreg. Five trees of the ‘JFS-KW12’ variety were successfully propagated, were evaluated for two years, then destroyed. In each year from 2005 to 2009, I again propagated small plots of ‘JFS-KW12’ trees, varying from 7 to 19 trees, for testing and evaluation purposes. In each case, these trees were regularly evaluated, and after two years the trees were dug and destroyed. In 2010 and 2011, I kept a total of 30 ‘JFS-KW12’ trees for evaluation, which were planted out under my direction and control in nursery stock blocks in Boring, Oreg. and Canby, Oreg.
From the above propagation, I established that my new variety's characteristics of vigorous growth, large deep green glossy leaves, resistance to powdery mildew and oak anthracnose, and an excellent branch structure are unique and firmly fixed in each successive generation.